Since the time when human beings first developed tools, a convenient way to organize and store the tools needed to perform a specific task has been a necessity. Prior art methods of organizing and storing tools are numerous including bags, belts, pails, etc. Some tool users keep their tools in boxes. Early tool boxes were made of wood. While these wooden tool boxes enabled tools to be kept in a single location and protected, wooden tool boxes did not present a convenient way to organize tools so that the tool required at a particular time could be easily identified and located. Many tools were simply dumped into a box and the person needing a specific tool had to rummage through all of the tools in the box or selectively remove tools one by one until the right tool was found for the job at hand.
The development of sophisticated manufacturing techniques has enabled low cost tools of all shapes and sizes to be made available to users. However, with more tools available to users the problem of storing and organizing all of the tools in a user's possession is exacerbated.
To this day, many tool boxes simply include a removable tray sized to fit into the top of a tool box. By using the removable tray, smaller hand tools such as wrenches and screwdrivers can be separated from larger, less frequently used tools such as hammers and pipe wrenches. These larger tools are typically stored in the bottom of the tool box. For the sophisticated builder, car mechanic or repairman, a tool box with a simple tray insert is insufficient to organize all the different types of tools that might be necessary to complete a job. Moreover, a mechanic with a large collection of different tools will have a difficult time finding the right tool for the job in a tool box having only a top tray, thereby wasting valuable time and energy.
To organize and hold the many tools used by a mechanic, builder or repairman, chest-type metal tool boxes were developed. These prior art chest-type tool boxes can be from three feet to six feet in height. In each chest-type tool box are a number of different sized drawers into which even the heaviest tools can be placed for storage and protection. Some of these prior art tool boxes are made to be movable by the use of casters. However, large prior art chest-type tool boxes are too big to fit into tight spaces and cannot be rolled into spaces with a low overhead such as underneath a car or a truck. Moreover, the tools in chest-type tool boxes are stored inside the drawers, out of sight from the mechanic. Unless the mechanic has memorized the drawer location for each tool, the mechanic must open each drawer and then examine the contents of each drawer to find the right tool. This effort to find the right tool for a job requires the mechanic to leave a job in progress, walk over to the tool box and locate the right tool.
What is needed in the art is a tool organizing system which can be moved alongside a workman to the job site that will provide easy access to a large selection of tools. In addition, the tool organizing system should be able to fit in tight spaces as well as spaces with a low overhead and still present needed tools to the mechanic so that the mechanic does not have to dig through an unorganized pile of tools to find the right tool for the task at hand.